Author's Preface
The following pages were written at the solicitation of highly esteemed European friends, who deemed that the author's long years of experience as a student and adept in the Spiritism of many lands might furnish to the world some valuable information concerning the mysteries of that spiritual communion now so prevalent throughout the civilized world.
In order to gratify these too partial advisers, the author at first collated his personal experiences into a series of autobiographical sketches, the first few chapters of which were published under the title of "Ghost Land; or Researches into the Realm of Spiritual Existence," in Emma Harding Britten's high toned American Magazine, the "Western Star." As the calamitous fires which devestated the city of Boston some five or six years ago caused the suspension of Mrs. Britten's excellent periodical, the author determined to lay his papers aside, for any use posterity might derive from them, but the same friendly spirit of appreciation which had dictated the transcription of the autobiography subsequently pleaded for its continuance, or the preparation of a still more occult work, in which the much needed desideratum of a comprehensive philosophy, covering the principles which underlie spiritual existence should be given to the world, as a basis on which to found the superstructure of spiritual science.